Oil Markets

It's been a tumultuous stretch for Canadian crude as the coronavirus pandemic and infrastructure uncertainty have impacted the market. However, prices have risen to a level that supports higher production and increased takeaway capacity may provide differentials some uplift. S&P Global Platts editor Patrick Harrington discusses Canada's crude prices, infrastructure and politics.

Gasoline prices are rallying on underlying demand strength in Europe, West Africa and across the Atlantic, while diesel prices remain steady amid stagnant demand and an abundance of supply as jet fuel continues to be blended into the middle distillates pool, despite slowly rising flight demand. In this episode of the S&P Global Platts Oil Markets Podcast, reporters Evridiki Dimitriadou, Rowan Staden-Coats and Christopher Ewen discuss with Francesco Di Salvo the latest trends on the vital transportation fuel markets.

In a fast-changing landscape where energy transition is the most popular catch phrase, the trading community is looking for answers on what's in store for the oil market over the next decade. Ravinder Kumar Malhotra, Director General of the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry, and Dave Ernsberger, Global Head of Pricing and Market Insight at S&P Global Platts, join Sambit Mohanty, Senior Asia Energy Editor at Platts, to exchange views on the potential growth of low-carbon oil flows and the influence of carbon pricing on oil markets. They also discuss the importance of sustained investment in oil projects in order to ensure plentiful supplies in the years to come.

While demand for tankers of clean and dirty oil products has yet to recover fully from the pandemic, prices of bunker fuels have been rising to 16-month highs, thus threatening the profitability of the shipping industry and making shipowners less willing to offer a certain number of loss-making routes. In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, S&P Global Platts reporters Britt Russell-Webster and Chris To discuss with Tamara Sleiman the reasons behind the bullishness in crude oil futures.

Gasoline imports into the US Atlantic Coast have surged to record highs in recent months. Andrea Salazar and Anna Trier of S&P Global Platts look at what has been driving the flurry of imports -- from the recent Colonial Pipeline cyberattack to a winter storm that impacted the Gulf Coast -- and how long that is expected to last.

While the pandemic is far from over and coronavirus cases are still rising in some Asian countries, the front-month Brent crude futures breached on June 1 the $70/barrel ceiling and extended the rise the next day. From OPEC's optimistic demand forecasts to uncertainty over Iran's production, caution seems to dominate the medium-term, and the longer-term role of energy transition may not be as bearish for prices as one might think. In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, S&P Global Platts reporters Nicholas Baldwin and Eklavya Gupte discuss with Joel Hanley the reasons behind the bullishness in crude oil futures.

China on May 14 announced that it will implement a consumption tax on mixed aromatics, light cycle oil and bitumen blend from June 12 in an effort to close a loophole in its tax system. This tax is expected to have repercussions not only in the domestic market, but also in the regional refined products market and crude markets. Mixed aromatics and light cycle oil or LCO are used as blend stocks in gasoline and gasoil, and bitumen blend is used as a feedstock by independent refiners. The tax is expected to alter domestic supply-demand balances, regional trade flows, and types of crudes imported into China.

While the May 7 outage of the Colonial Pipeline prompted fears of fuel shortages on the US Atlantic Coast, it also led to talk of extra gasoline and diesel moving from Europe. But with COVID restrictions easing on both sides of the Atlantic, there are longer-term drivers at play. In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, S&P Global Platts reporters Rowan Staden-Coats and Allen Reed discuss with Joel Hanley the latest trends on these vital road fuel markets.

Global crude prices have staged an impressive rally, recovering to pre-COVID levels. However, many US Gulf Coast crude differentials and regional spreads are yet to normalize, raising the question if the 2020 demand shock and ongoing infrastructure buildout will have a permanent impact on relative prices. S&P Global Platts Americas Crude Managing Editor Laura Huchzermeyer discusses recent price trends on the Gulf Coast and the Platts AGS waterborne crude assessment with Senior Pricing Specialist Kristian Tialios and Associate Director Matt Eversman.

While the European jet fuel market has yet to recover from the pandemic and continues to trade at low cash premiums, will demand for aviation fuel be boosted by the upcoming easing of travel restrictions within Europe and the potential resumption of non-essential trans-Atlantic flights? In this episode of the Oil Markets Podcast, S&P Global Platts reporters Virginie Malicier and Thomas Washington discuss with Gary Clark the latest news on the travel front and their expected consequences for the jet market.